Medical gas service outlets are common in hospital rooms where gas services such as oxygen, air and nitrous oxide, as well as vacuum service, can be provide. A user can conveniently plug in the various equipment that utilizes the particular service with a specially designed, keyed adaptor that generally is connected to medical tubing for delivery to its end use device.
The typical adaptor is a quick-disconnect type device that serves to open a valve mechanism when inserted into the outlet. The adapter includes a release knob that can be rotated between a first position where a locking spring retains the adaptor within the service outlet, and a second position where the adaptor is released from the service outlet.
The conventional service outlet includes a spring biased plunger valve that is actuated by insertion of the adaptor to open the valve. The valve includes a seal assembly having an O-ring that seals around the nose of the adaptor and a hair pin spring that engages and releasably locks the nose of the adaptor. The spring that biases the plunger, the O-ring and the hair pin locking spring are subject to wear and require replacement.
One conventional service outlet in use today has a face plate assembly wherein a valve is attached to the back side of the assembly and a back cover is riveted into place to secure the valve in position. In order to replace the internal valve parts, the rivets have to be drilled out to remove the back cover. It is then necessary to rivet the back cover into place to reassemble the outlet. Since this is a difficult and time-consuming repair operation, many users simply replace the entire face plate assembly.
An improved medical service outlet has screws which hold the back cover in place. Although this construction offers some improvement over the riveted one, it is still necessary to remove the entire face plate assembly from the wall, and then remove the screws in order to replace parts within the valve. The repair operation remains an awkward and time-consuming procedure.